Museum to offer historical program on 'The Cat Lady'
NEW MILFORD, Conn. — A costumed presentation Thursday, Oct. 2, will shine a light on a unique connection between a local woman known as the Cat Lady and the Isle of Wight.
The New Milford Historical Society will present “The Cat Lady’s Celebrity Connections, or, What the Dickens has the Isle of Wight to Do with Florence Chandler Maybrick” at 7 p.m.
UK historical reenactor Julie Croydon will discuss the late Florence Chandler Maybrick’s imprisonment for murder in England and the family's ties to an island in England.
Maybrick was an American woman convicted in the UK of murdering her husband, cotton merchant James Maybrick. She was convicted during the reign of Queen Victoria and released during the reign of King Edward VII. She moved back to the U.S. and settled in the New Milford/South Kent area and went by the name Florence Chandler.
Croydon was asked at one point to present a monologue in the person of Laura Withers, the wife of Chandler’s brother-in-law, Michael Maybrick. In the persona of Laura, Croydon had to give the Maybrick version of the alleged murder of Chandler’s husband, James.
The request prompted Croydon to take a keen interest in the case, and she studied it in depth.
Years later, when Croydon and her husband came to the U.S. to visit Croydon’s sister, who moved to Connecticut decades ago, the Croydons were taken to Maybrick’s grave in the New Milford/South Kent area.
It was then, Croydon’s research revealed several links between the Isle of Wight and Chandler’s story.
Croydon then met New Milford resident Ron Suresha and began proofreading his manuscript of Chandler’s biography, “Death of a Cat Lady.”
Together, Croydon and Suresha contacted the relatives of both Chandler and James Maybrick and prepared submissions to the Criminal Cases Review Commission in hopes of exonerating Chandler.
Admission to the program at the 6 Aspetuck Ave. museum is free for members and $5 for non-members.
For more information, call the historical society at 860-354-3069.
